A Companion of Sorts
by Mein Liebling
Summary: [Child!AU, Sakumo never died!AU, Kakashi/Gai friendship, for Sam] :: They didn't get along. Bickering, fighting, Gai was smiling even when Kakashi threw insults at him like the kunai he spent every morning throwing, they were friends. Rivals. Companions. The lines were blurred in their quick tempers and unlikely bond over doing their best. "Yosh! Who are you?"


_For Sammie (MissingMommy), the wisest of us all and who requested Kakashi/Gai. Who am I to deny such a request? Love you, Sam! *smooches*_

* * *

Gai ran.

The young child cloaked in green stumbled his way through the forest, ducking under fallen branches and logs and through bushes to throw off his pursuers. His heart was hammering loudly in his chest, his harsh pants and loud steps echoing off of the desolate trees surrounding him.

His sandals were clacking whenever he pushed off of a log, the cloth holding them to his feet fraying and he prayed desperately that they would stay on until he had lost his chasers. There was no time for him to pull them off, nor did he wish for himself to accidentally stab his foot by taking them off in the sharp and dangerous forest, so he grit his teeth and continued running, farther and farther away from civilization, and he couldn't decide whether or not that was good or bad.

He pressed on for a little longer- how long had he been running? Ten minutes? Twenty? An hour? Two?- and mentally thanked his father for all his training, as he slowed down for a few seconds to listen behind him. Nothing.

No footsteps, no yells, no cold words or sharp kunai pointed at him.

The shaggy black haired boy let out a sigh of relief as he finally came to a stop, and his body nearly collapsed as he realized how tired he was. Everything ached, his heart was beating so fast he wondered if he would go into cardiac arrest. His shoes had finally broken, steam and smoke rising from them as they broke in two, and the Academy student shuddered as he saw his labored breaths rise in the air.

_Where was he? And what time was it?_

His heart beat started picking up again, and he cursed slightly under his breath.

Speaking from experience, the Genin who had chased him would wait around for a couple hours from where he had last been seen and lure him into a false sense of security, and attack. They would also have the next five miles on either side covered so he couldn't retrace his path that way. That meant he had to go way out of the way, which would take hours, or wait hours for them to leave so he could sneak back.

Sometimes Gai wished he had more natural talent with jutsus so he could create a clone to sneak by, but all he had was his generations of taijutsu that didn't do him much good when he was tired and was pitted one against ten with people who never played fair.

Gai sat down on the prickly ground and leaned against as decaying log, wondering how worried his father will be and how in the world was he going to get back without shoes.

He fell into an uneasy sleep, his stomach rumbling and his muscles pinched.

The forest was oddly silent around him.

* * *

"Kakashi, aim for that tree over there."

The young prodigy nodded and picked up one of the kunai, holding it steadily in his hand and weighing it, before carefully aiming it at the tree his father mentioned.

It whizzed out of his hand and just barely missed the center bullseye that was painted on it.

Sakumo smiled and ruffled Kakashi's always impossible to tame hair. "That wasn't bad. Do it again."

The silver haired boy bit his tongue as he re-aimed and fired. It hit it exactly, a small echoing "ting" vibrating through the air as the metal just barely skimmed the other kunai.

"Great job Kakashi! You'll have the best aim in your class when you go to the Academy, I'm sure of it." Sakumo beamed proudly, and the young boy, just barely having turned six, gave him a small smile. "Thanks Dad."

The White Fang pointed at the tree. "You're welcome. Now, go retrieve those kunai will you? You can practice using tree walking to get it."

Kakashi lit up immediately, a grin lining his face as he hurried over to the tree, silently reminding himself how to tree walk, even though he really didn't have to with his above average chakra control.

He peered up at the tree and testingly placed a foot on it, but as he felt the familiar feeling of chakra swirling through the bottom of his feet he easily walked up the side of the tree and carefully pulled out the kunai, throwing them down to his father so the older man could mark where he would next throw them.

Kakashi carefully twisted around, making sure to keep his balance, and began his descent. His dark grey eyes watched the ground as it slowly came closer and closer, before he noticed something odd at the edge of his vision. It blended in easily with the ground, which is why he hadn't noticed it before, but as he turned his head his eyes widened and he shouted, _"Dad!"._

Sakumo immediately tensed. "Kakashi?"

"There's someone over there- the clearing, to your right. He looks dead!"

Sakumo narrowed his eyes. "Kakashi, stay behind me. We don't know if he's dead or not, or if he's a spy. Did he have a Konoha forehead protector?"

"No."

Konoha's White Fang pulled his son behind him as he silently stepped into the clearing. He immediately noticed the small body curled up against a log near the edge of the opposite side. He flared his chakra as he got closer, Kakashi following eagerly behind him as the boy kept on trying to keep a calm mask whilst bouncing on his heels and peaking from under his arm, but the figure didn't even twitch.

Sakumo stood over the boy and looked him over. Small, young, probably Kakashi's age, black bowl cut hair (why was that so familiar...?), a little bit too big forest green jumpsuit that blended in well with the surrounding leaves, and as he once again searched out with his chakra, little to almost no chakra in the boy, his reserves were average and very depleted.

He was no threat to Sakumo, even if the boy was at his best, so Sakumo nodded to his son to come over next to him.

"Alright. We'll turn this into a learning experience."

Kakashi scowled. "D_ad!"_

"Ka_kashi!"_ Sakumo mocked back. "Shush. Now check his pulse."

The silver haired boy muttered something under his breath but did as he was told, grasping the limp arm and pressing his nimble fingers to his wrist. He waited a few moments before replying, "It's shallow but steady. I think he overworked himself."_  
_

"Good assumption." Sakumo said calmly. "And it's true. But why would he overwork himself?"

"To train?" Kakashi guessed. That's what he did at least when Sakumo was gone and didn't stop him from pushing far past his limits.

"Not quite. He was chased. Several bushes and branches are snapped when he ran through them, his shoes are broken, bruises are all over him and he fell asleep tense, as if he knew that he might get attacked while he was asleep."

"...But I was right."

His father sighed, exasperated. "Yes Kakashi, you were partially right."

The six year old nodded to himself, pleased.

Sakumo wondered if he was this much of a problem when he was a child. He silently apologized to his parents. With another prayer to let him survive as a single father with Kakashi, he leaned down and picked up the boy, happy enough to feel that he was about an average weight for his age, which he pegged down to six or seven.

"Alright, come on. Let's fix him up and see if we can find his parents."

Kakashi followed him loyally as they set off to a small and quiet house near the edge of the forest, which he was happy enough to call 'home' with it's dark walls and warm floors.

It didn't take them long, Sakumo keeping a steady pace that Kakashi could match. Soon Sakumo was laying out their mysterious patient on an extra futon and was carefully making the unconscious boy swallow the pills. He undressed the boy and cleaned up some of his scrapes and bruises, letting Kakashi wrap them with much steadier hands then the last time he had to wrap wounds. Then, keeping an eye on the clock ('9:12' it read, which meant that the shops would just start opening for the day and everyone would be wide awake and bustling in their busy village) he ordered Kakashi to stay in the house and watch the boy, and to make him something to eat if he woke up and Sakumo wasn't back yet.

And then the six year old was left in the company of a dead to the world boy and nothing to do.

"Dad could have sent me," he muttered under his breath, crossing his arms as he stared at Bowl Cut Boy (as he had silently started to call him in his head) and poked him on the forehead.

Not even a twitch.

Borrowing one of the Nara's catchphrases he sighed. "How troublesome."

Bowl Cut Boy didn't bother giving him an answer.

Kakashi looked down at Bowl Cut Boy. "You know, for all we know you're dead."

No response.

"I mean, you haven't woken up yet, you haven't moved, your heart beat I could have just imagined and your chest isn't moving. You're dead."

Bowl Cut Boy was as still as ever.

"Great. So now I've got a dead body in my house, and on the second best futon. I loved that futon! I always use it when someone stay overs but _nooooo _now some random dead body is on it and I'm going to have to throw it away. Thanks a lot."

Bowl Cut Boy would have been laughing at him, Kakashi was sure of it.

"So you're some random dead body we found and now I'm stuck alone with you until Dad comes back. This isn't fun. This is not exactly how I planned for my day with dad to go. He's leaving again the day after tomorrow but he's busy tomorrow so we were going to train today. He said he would teach me a cool jutsu too!"

Kakashi pouted. "I'm going upstairs for a bit, dead bodies aren't great conversationalists-" he sounded out the large word. "-you know."

He left the room in a huff and then everything was quiet in the room.

A few minutes passed in silence.

A muscle twitched on Gai's face before relaxing again. His foot cracked as it jerked and he winced at the pop.

The boy groaned as he opened his dark eyes and shut them quickly in the semi-dark lighting, which was still too bright for his eyes that had gotten used to the forest's naturally pitch-black state. He blinked them for a few moments as he got used to the brightness, and sat up quickly, despite his pounding headache, as he realized that he was no, not in the forest and no, not anywhere he recognized.

Peachy.

He then tried to undo the blankets that were holding him there, his finger bandages nearly ripping in his haste, much to his distaste, when he heard soft footsteps come from above. He froze as they descended from upstairs and came right towards where he was, and quickly tried to decide what to do.

He didn't decide in time, and another boy, maybe his age, came in and froze when he saw him sitting up. Gai studied him. Average height, puffy grey hair and eyes, a black shirt with a black face mask hung around his throat (why the boy had it, he had no idea, since it didn't look like he wore it at all), and finally some shorts with a kunai pouch (empty) slung on his waist.

Gai didn't think he was much of a problem then.

"Yosh! Who are you?"

The other boy blinked and scowled. Gai thought the look made him look a thousand times more grumpy and mean. "It's polite to tell yours first to the people who saved you!"

"But I asked first."

"So? It's polite!"

"You don't seem to be a person who cares about whether or not something is polite or not."

"And you, Bowl Cut Boy, don't seem to be a person who points out stuff like that."

Gai blinked. "Bowl Cut Boy?"

The silver haired boy flushed. "Shut up. A-Anyway, Dad said that when you awaken that I should make you something. Anything you'd like?"

"I-"

"Ramen, great. Don't move, I'll be back soon."

And with that the irritable soon to be Academy student left the room to go cook ramen for Gai, who felt vaguely amused at the other.

"Thank you! I also like beef ramen!"

"We're having chicken!" Kakashi called back, smugness seeping into his voice.

"Ah! I love chicken! Thank you!"

Gai felt like laughing as he heard the exasperated sigh coming from the kitchen. This other guy was fun when he riled him up.

* * *

Sakumo sighed as he shut the door behind him. He had absolutely no luck in figuring who the kid was, instead being pulled into many, many annoying conversations with the shopkeepers, or civilians, or several Chunin who came up to him to tell him that he had several mission scrolls that needed to be looked over, et cetera. He could only hope that the boy was awake and that Kakashi wasn't being rude, as he tended to be when he didn't know people. Or when he did know people. He was rude in general, Sakumo supposed. Although that was mostly his own fault. Oops.

He paused for a moment. Something was off.

The house was oddly quiet.

Quiet was never good.

Usually Kakashi made some kind of racket, still in his childish phase and not yet reaching an older mentality that one would usually associate with a prodigy (usually happened by a death that impacted them majorly, Sakumo was almost happy that the boy didn't remember anything about his mother). Even when he was sleeping, Kakashi would roll around or fall on the floor. He wouldn't be sleeping in the middle of the day either.

"...Kakashi?" Sakumo called out, a hand on a kunai incase something terrible had happened to his son. "Are you here?"

He progressed into the sitting room and that was where he finally caught sight, in the dim gloomly room with the curtains hastily half shut, a small tuff of silver hair sticking out from behind the couch. He relaxed.

"Kakashi, what are you-"

"Shhh!" The six year old shushed him, looking quickly from side to side to see if they were alone. "Keep your voice down!"

Sakumo blinked but complied. "Kakashi," he whispered. "What are we doing?"

Kakashi nodded, happy at his father's acceptance of his order. "I'm trying to catch Bowl Cut Boy and make him tell me his name. He's trying to do the same."

"Bowl Cut Boy...?"

Kakashi scowled. "Shut up. I had to name him something."

Sakumo held up his hands in mock defeat. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. So is Bowl Cut Boy-kun doing alright?"

"He's alive if that's what you mean. I gave him chicken ramen and then he _still_ wouldn't tell me his name so I said that if he could catch me I'll tell him and if I caught him he'll tell me."

Sakumo nodded sagely. "And I'm assuming that neither of you have caught each other yet."

"No, but I'm going to win, definitely!"

His father grinned and ruffled his hair. "Sounds good. I'll be in the kitchen if you need me. Please don't break anything."

Kakashi saluted him as Sakumo stepped into the kitchen. Kakashi had made instant ramen and just poured them into bowls, so the S ranked ninja sighed and washed the bowls and threw out the ramen cartons.

He rubbed his hands together as he wondered what to do while two six year olds ransacked his house while playing an odd version of "Uncle". His eyes, the same colour of Kakashi's, landed on a half-read book, and he sighed and picked it up as he settled in one of the chairs. What else did he have to do? Maybe now he could finally relax, as he studiously ignored the yells of "_WHAT'S YOUR NAME"_ and "_YOU TELL ME FIRST"._

Maybe an hour past, he wasn't sure, when a small dark head (very much not his own child's) poked through the doorway and opened his mouth to yell, but Sakumo smiled instead and whispered, "Shh, don't worry, I'm neutral and this is neutral zone."

The young boy relaxed as he slipped inside, shutting the door silently behind him and turned towards the man. Sakumo, although he wished desperately that Kakashi had enough sense to give the mysterious boy some clothing so he wasn't running around in his underwear, was happy to see that the boy's shallow cuts weren't bleeding through the bandages.

"What would you like?"

The child was startled for a moment, before smiling brightly and energetically. "Yosh! Could I have some water please?"

Sakumo smiled at the exuberance. "Of course!" He got up and filled up a glass of water, before passing it to the boy. "Here, sit down for a little bit. Are you hungry?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but his stomach cut him off by growing loudly. Gai blushed. "Yes please."

Sakumo let out a laugh as he patted Gai on the back. "Haha, just like my own boy, Kakashi."

"Kakashi?"

Sakumo froze and muttered several curse words unsuitable for children in his brain. "I wasn't supposed to tell you that."

"Huh. Kakashi." Gai muttered, rubbing his chin. "At least I know his name."

"Don't tell him I told you that, okay?" Sakumo asked as he shuffled over to the fridge to find something for the three of them.

Gai looked shocked. "I would never! Just because I know his name doesn't mean I'm going to tell him. I'm gonna beat him and make him tell me his name himself! Yosh!"

Sakumo cracked a grin. "You're honest, kid, I like that. What's your name?"

Ga hesitated. Sakumo noticed immediately. "I swear on my ninja honor that I will not tell Kakashi." he crossed his heart, and Gai smiled brightly.

"I'm Maito Gai. Nice to meet you, er-"

"Just call me Sakumo."

Gai nodded. "Nice to meet you Sakumo-san!"

Sakumo laughed, pushing the pan towards the back burner and cutting up some vegetables next to it. Might as well make dinner and force the two to come to a compromise.

It _was _his house after all, and dammit, he was not going to sit back and let the ruin it.

(He knew that his deceased wife would have had a smile on her face if she had seen Kakashi having so much fun- he was just too serious and cocky around others his age, this would be good for him.)

A couple minutes passed and he set down a bowl of steaming stir fry in front of Gai. "Eat up," he told the child. "I'm going to get Kakashi." Gai just nodded as he scooped the rice and vegetables in his mouth at an incredible speed, and Sakumo grinned again and rubbed Gai's bowl cut head, and left the room to find his son.

"Kakashi, dinner!" he called out, and sure enough Kakashi peaked his head out from behind a closet doorway, looking very disgruntled.

"I can't find him," the boy complained. "And in my house too!"

Sakumo just gave him a cheshire smile as he pushed Kakashi into the kitchen and stood outside the doorway to see the play unfold.

_"You!" _Kakashi pointed his finger at Gai.

"_You!" _Gai managed to yell out, somehow keeping all of his food in his mouth and quickly swallowing it.

"You were supposed to keep inside the house!"

"I did!" Gai protested. "The kitchen is inside!"

"Yeah, but it's not inside the zone!"

"You never said it wasn't."

"But when my dad was here then yeah, it is."

"He said it was neutral zone." Gai crossed his arms and loaded Kakashi's anger onto Sakumo. Fun.

"Dadddd!" Kakashi complained, stomping his foot childishly.

Sakumo decided he had left them stewing long enough. "Kakashi, that is no way to treat guests." Sakumo chided. "Now sit down and you two have a polite conversation, got it?"

They grumbled but Kakashi sat in his usual spot, just across from Gai, and they didn't speak at all to each other, and Sakumo considered that an improvement. At least they weren't shouting anymore. Silence was better then screaming in his opinion. Screaming alerted enemies. Silence alerted enemies. Everything alerted enemies, but at least his eardrums weren't popping this way.

Kakashi's father set a bowl of stir fry in front of him as well as himself, and the three of them slowly started eating.

"Okay, now I want the two of you to tell each other your names." Sakumo injected after about five minutes of silence.

Kakashi glared at Gai, who just smiled warmly at him (having found the entire time spent at Kakashi's house extremely amusing), and he crossed his arms. "Fine. I'll do it, as long as he goes first."

Sakumo sighed and looked at Gai. "I apologize for my rude son-"

"_Dad!"_

"-but would you be willing to go first? I have a feeling that we would be here all night otherwise."

Kakashi muttered something crossly under his breath, but Gai only grinned and nodded. "I am Maito Gai! Nice to meet you!"

Kakashi hesitated. "...Hatake Kakashi. Nice to meet you too."

Sakumo clapped his hands together, happy to see that they at least had gotten _that _far. "Good! Now Gai, where are your parents? I tried to find them earlier but I couldn't."

Gai blinked. "Ah, I live with my dad! Maito Dai! He's out on a mission right now, and I was..." he paused for a moment. "Training, in the forest. I must work my best so my father can be proud of me!"

Sakumo narrowed his eyes, but let the 'training' hiccup pass. "Okay then. When will your father be back?"

Gai tilted his head to the side as he thought. "Thursday, I think."

The father nodded. "Well, in that case, you can stay here tonight- and any other night- while your father is gone. It's not nice spending time in an empty house."

Gai lit up like a Christmas tree. "Really? Thank you so much Sakumo-san!"

Kakashi just pursed his lips.

Sakumo noticed this and injected, "And you can stay with Kakashi. I think you two would be good sparring partners."

"Dad-" Kakashi tried to cut in.

"Yosh!" Gai pumped his fist. "I will defeat you then, Kakashi! Prepare to lose!"

The silver haired boy scowled. "As if! I'm going to beat you! Tomorrow morning, we're sparring, okay!"

The plan worked, Sakumo smiled, and he looked back down at his meal and spooned some more meat into his mouth. Perfect. Just the way he liked it.

They bickered for a little while longer before Sakumo sent the two to bed, Kakashi pulling the bedroll Gai used earlier into his room while the two chattered away about the Academy and how they were utterly going to destroy each other the next day, before finally the house was silent again.

They had turned into two unlikely friends, or rivals, Kakashi's father noticed. But maybe it was good for Kakashi. He could use a little friendship.

* * *

_Jesus Christ. I wrote the first 2k on my phone and then belted out these last 2k on my computer and I have to say that I'm honestly surprised how long this has gotten. _

_I absolutely adore Kakashi and Gai, although I don't think I gave them much credit at all D: Oh well._

_Hope you enjoyed somewhat, Sammie, I love you very much and really I cannot thank you enough for asking for this. This was really fun to write although not my best._

_I don't own Naruto!_


End file.
